People are just realising their Wi-Fi speed is instantly better when they stop secret ‘connection hoggers’

IF you’re constantly suffering with bad broadband speeds the problem could be due to someone hogging the data.

Poor Wi-Fi can happen for various reasons, such as metal objects that interfere with the signal.

Gaming online can take up a load of bandwidth

But sometimes if you have too many devices connected to your hub it can cause issues as well.

This is particularly the case for internet tasks that require a lot of broadband power.

Most internet providers are able to deal with heavy demand these days, as long as you have the right package.

But Vodafone has warned that certain tasks can be a particular drain.

And the big culprits tend to be streaming movies and gaming.

Films or TV shows via your favourite streaming apps are normally fine.

But if you’re watching in 4K and others in the house are doing the same, that’s going to push your router for a lot more data.

Equally, games, especially online playing, require a huge amount of broadband data to work smoothly.

Gaming also requires a lot of upload speed – so any FaceTime calls you attempt to make at the same time someone is playing PlayStation or Xbox could be impacted.

“This is referred to as ‘network traffic’, which means the amount of data which is moving across a network at any given time,” Vodafone says.

“In this scenario, your WiFi may be slightly slower during this time but will improve when less people are connected.”

So if the kids are hogging the broadband with too much gaming, it might be time to limit them to see whether there’s a boost to your connection.

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